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hypnosec writes "Well known iOS security researcher Pod2g has confirmed that a working untethered iOS 6 jailbreak is ready and would be released as soon as iOS 6.1 GM is released. In an interview with iDigitalTimes, the security researcher has revealed that they are already in possession of a functional untethered iOS 6 and iOS 6.1 beta 4 jailbreak, and the majority of the work has been done by @planetbeing and @pimskeks. '6.0 is jailbroken, 6.1 beta 4 also. Now we are waiting 6.1 to confirm and release,' said the researcher. He said that the jailbreak would have been possible without him as he came into the iOS 6 jailbreak scene at a later stage and provided pointers that pushed the other researchers to the maximum."

I think they mean business innovation, not technological. The ability to lock down hardware such that the manufacturer still retains control even after sale does enable a number of successful new business models. If the user can buy the hardware and do as they please, businesses are largely confined to the basic method of trying to sell equipment for more than it cost to manufacture.

What the fucking fuck! They're claiming that jailbreaking reduces the ability to innovate?

People using internal APIs that were not intended to be used, if the company cared about keeping those applications from breaking when an internal API needed to be changed, would prevent forward innovation dependent upon the internal API changing.

However, side-loaded applications have been frequently broken, and in some cases, particularly unlocking, intentionally so.

This has been particularly so with regard to SIM unlocks. For example, the "TurboSIM" and similar products which identified themselves as off

I don't see why anyone would buy an Apple device and then jailbreak it. There are equal or better Android equivalents the are not locked down and even if you do jailbreak an Apple device you are still forced to use iTunes to manage media on it.

You started well by acknowledging that the top models compete on equal merits and stating your opinion that one could cater to people's needs as well as the other so there's, in your opinion, little reason to choose the more restricted brand.

Then with that last sentence you turned into a blind religious constipated infantile hater and ruined it all;)

Your argument, as presented, gives no reason to prefer Android (there obviously are reasons, though). For myself, I prefer iOS over Android because the UX is much snappier and more fluid, leading to a sense that the phone/tablet itself is faster. Certain UI elements provide much better feedback on iOS than Android, such as the rubber-band effect vs. Google's "light-up" effect (not sure if this has a name). Also, other elements are more clear as to their purpose--IIRC, there are a few buttons in the Andro

Interestingly, I just tried Android Firefox today and saw the rubber-banding. I was pleased at first, but it's not as fluid as it is on iOS. I couldn't tell if this was because of the phone (an Incredible 2) or just a shoddy implementation.

It seems quite smooth on my N4, I'm just not a fan of that way of doing things. Although, android does do it very subtly when you hit the end of a list while scrolling at speed. It's minor enough to not be distracting.

Certain UI elements provide much better feedback on iOS than Android, such as the rubber-band effect vs. Google's "light-up" effect (not sure if this has a name).

Overscroll bounce was left out of Android by design because of an Apple patent. A version of Android is distributed under a free software license, and free software cannot implement patented methods that are not licensed royalty-free.

I can't send free iMessages to my friends with iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches with a droid.There aren't any droids that can airplay to my AppleTV (or my girlfriends).Droids can't sync to iTunes and use the same metadata (Have I played it? Thumbnails, actors, rating, description, etc.etc.).Droids don't support FindMyFriends (Sure, they have another app for it, but it's not compatible, and I'm not buying all my friends droids).

I do the first three every single day, and the last about once a week. I've nev

Nicer hardware. Have yet to find an android phone that feels as nice in the hand as my 4-S. Also, apple hardware support - if you buy your devices outright with no plan (like we can in australia). Break your shit? Take it to apple and you get a new phone for fairly cheap. Last i did it, $280 bucks for a brand new replacement handset.

I guess it is a matter of taste. Personally I find the iPhone to look somewhat dated (the basic design has been exactly the same for years) and everything up to the latest widescreen ones was too small to use comfortably. The 5 is about the minimum screen size I would want. My hands are only average size.

For the best feel some of the newer HTCs with their grippy backs are pretty nice.

You can get insurance on any phone you like here in the UK, including immediate replacement.

To be fair, most of that list is completely true. And I say that as a person who has all my devices jailbroken since the iPhone3G and iPad1.

Only the legal one is factually incorrect, and of course the too-vague-to-interpret which can't be factually argued either way.

Crashes & instability - There are quite a few apps that push the devices way past their limits. I've personally experienced the slowdowns and memory leaks caused by Winterboard, as well as had various tweaks just end up breaking things unt

Can someone clarify for me how exactly this is fighting for freedoms? AFAIK, iOS is pretty locked down, and this is in the EULA. Which ou agree to when you buy the device. I mean, no one who is carrying the mantle of digital freedom is lining up to get one of these iDevices thinking they're doing freedomish stuff, right?

Well, it's all relative. For a lot of people coming over to iOS from Windows and even in some cases Macs iOS is the first OS that they use where they actually have software freedom in that they want to use and feel confident about using third party software. The installation process on both Windows and Mac is terrible in comparison, especially on Macs where you have to know what a mounted dmg is. And that assumes that actually finding the software can be done in the first place. In comparison, iOS makes it

Linux has its own issues. It's a lot better than it used to be, certainly - but it suffers in a manner from great diversity. One Windows or OSX computer is almost exactly like any other - you don't have to worry about not having the correct versions of many different libraries, or system files not being in the same place on every distro. So long as you stick to the distro's own store or repository, all is well - venture outside, and trouble looms.

In theory you could solve most of that problem by just releasing the source under a 'no modification' license. It'd render any form of restriction or DRM trivial to bypass, but... it already is. For that to happen though you'd first need to convince everyone involved that DRM is utterly futile and that they should just abandon all hope of ever getting it to be more than a curb-high deterrant, whch isn't going to be easy.

One Windows or OSX computer is almost exactly like any other - don't have to worry about not having the correct versions of many different libraries, or system files not being in the same place on every distro.

For the record this is true of each Linux distribution as well. One Ubuntu computer is the same as any other, and it'll stay the same on any other distribution that closely follows Debian.

So long as you stick to the distro's own store or repository, all is well - venture outside, and trouble looms.

At least on Ubuntu and other distributions based on Debian, there's a middle ground: third-party repositories designed for a particular distribution. Ubuntu calls them PPAs.

You're an odd individual. Either that, or isolated. Let's educate you.an iDevice is a quality product, and the operating system the same. Unfortunately, the alternative is something different, which is not what's desired by said person. The only thing missing is the ability to extend the operating system further, so that's what this is.

Now that you understand, I'm sure you can concur. If not, re-read this until you understand.

I'm thinking you're missing the ecosystem of the iOS operating environment.It's a choice people make, and if you don't like it then you can just not use it. It's by far not a false dichotomy... by very nature if it's open then the user can freely place untested things onto the device. For those that want to not worry about what goes onto their phone or iPad, this is what's desired. If you want Linux (or ubuntu) on your phone, go for a phone that does not have that.

I'm not saying the one cancels out the other. I'm just saying people like a thing that works and is easy to use. The iPhone is that. Whether it's open or free doesn't matter to most consumers. This answers the question why people buy these sort of systems in the first place.

why, again, is everyone so keen to buy devices that obey someone else?

Because sometimes only "devices that obey someone else" are available to the public at all. Case in point: Which set-top video game player obeys its owner, as opposed to its manufacturer? Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony consoles obey their manufacturer, and until very recently (Steam Big Picture), PCs haven't been marketed for set-top gaming use.

My cousin ordered an Ouya. But I see about two hurdles before Ouya becomes a viable alternative: final units have to ship in April, and it has to be in enough English-speaking households that at least small companies find it profitable to target. Consider the history of other alternatives to Sony and Nintendo handheld platforms: GamePark Holdings' products failed to catch on outside Korea as far as I can tell; Pandora shipped so late that Android-powered smartphones filled three-fourths of its niche; and th

That is the reason I use Google Voice for my phone number, and have since 2006. I've walked through nearly 5 phones since then, and have thought of them as nothing more than dumb terminals when it comes to the phone feature. Lots of awesome features with Google Voice.

If the Apple ecosystem is too closed for you, resulting in you needing to jump through all these jailbreaking hoops, why buy an Apple product in the first place? Why not buy something else from the get-go?

I love the Apple ecosystem. I have iPads, iPods, iPhones, Apple TVs, MacBooks, etc... I love it all. There are some exceptions, like using Microsoft Office instead of iWork and Mail, but for the most part, I really love Apple's ecosystem.

I don't want to start something here where platforms are argued, and I understand and respect other opinions, but for me... I've always had to use Windows through the years. I've developed for Windows and supported Windows for service and suppo

I actually bought an android device (a Galaxy Note, which I never bothered "jailbreaking" because it was good enough as it was), which I then had stolen.

A colleague gave me a 3GS she had lying around for me to use. It's now mine. However for me to proceed to sell it so that I could purchase another android device would be (in my opinion) a pretty crappy thing to do. So I'm stuck with it for now (and not ungrateful at all, it's a decent phone and it was free).

If the Apple ecosystem is too closed for you, resulting in you needing to jump through all these jailbreaking hoops, why buy an Apple product in the first place? Why not buy something else from the get-go?

Because Android makers are in a phallus measuring contest and its sucks.

If you want a decent phone with a usable sized screen (and none of thise "phablet" crap sized screen), Android goes right out of the door. A flagship Android phone with a 4" screen? Doesn't exist anymore - all Androids that are good ha

Apple has lost 1/3 of its value since Fall of 2012. I think we should give them a little slack. More than half their profits come from the one product, the iPhone. They have a lot of exposure to changing tastes, and their sales projections for iPhones in China were way missed. Investors are getting out of Apple faster than a drunk junior gets out of a prom dress. Their management is probably suffering from PTSD right about now, so we probably shouldn't hold their behavior against them.

Man, their policies bug me, many things about their products bug me and I lean linux for OS of choice. But a few years back I got an ipod touch ?3rdgen? for a 1 moth sobriety present (yay me). I tried not to let my normal snobbishness show as I unwrapped and started to play with the thing. I quickly fell in love with it -32jibbies of storage -apps like stanza, google maps, skype, etc. Music at my fingertips --and my favourite apps: a guutar toolkit with a great tuner and metronome and a simple 4-track.

This is rarely mentioned in these types of stories, but I think it's worth highlighting: jailbreaks are security vulnerabilities. If these guys know about a security vulnerability but are deliberately postponing release so that Apple don't patch it before 6.1 is released, they are deliberately choosing a course of action that harms users. Are there any other situations in which irresponsible disclosure is so accepted, or is it just when Apple are the target?

This is rarely mentioned in these types of stories, but I think it's worth highlighting: jailbreaks are security vulnerabilities. If these guys know about a security vulnerability but are deliberately postponing release so that Apple don't patch it before 6.1 is released, they are deliberately choosing a course of action that harms users. Are there any other situations in which irresponsible disclosure is so accepted, or is it just when Apple are the target?

Perhaps the idea is that if it were disclosed to Apple, Apple would fix it the wrong way. An application whitelist that a computing device's owner does not control is not the correct solution to the problem of malware. The correct solution is a robust capability framework, as seen in OLPC Bitfrost and (to a lesser extent) in Android.